Harvard experts reveal the biggest predictor of long-term health

What if the secret to longevity is not in the mind or intestine – but in the heart?

Speaking at the inaugural New York Times Well Festival on Wednesday, psychiatrist and researcher Dr. Robert Waldinger announced that he and his team were shocked by “the biggest predictors who will live long and stay healthy.”

Waldinger, director of adult development research at Harvard University, is the longest scientific study in adult life – showing that it is “the warmth of your connection to others, especially your connection to others.”

Apparently, the researchers were burned by these findings.

“How does our relationships really enter our bodies and actually change our physiology?” Waldinger muses.

“The best assumption is that it has to do with stress, and in fact, when they are good, the relationship is stress relievers.”

After all, our feelings are physically manifested – when something unsettling or anxiety-induced is happening, you can feel your pulse start playing, your breathing speeds up, and when you calm down, it’s the opposite.

It turns out that someone wants to vent, which plays a big role in it.

“Those who have no connection with others don’t have the same stress regulation mechanism in their lives as those with good relationships,” Waldinger said.

The secret seasoning is to realize that it is not enough to build relationships – you need to cultivate them like a garden.

Most of us don’t expect to be healthy without putting in some work – why do relationships differ?

“The people who are best at relationships are the people who are actively involved in keeping in touch with people who are in relationships,” he said. “Most of us take our relationship for granted.”

He even said that the “superpower” of people who are interested in maintaining contact and fostering relationships is “under the radar”.

The best part is that you don’t need to plan a well-planned trip or book a binding event to get the benefits. Waldinger said small things, such as actually having coffee with a barista coffee or – forbidden eye contact, the TSA agent checks your passport and gives us “a hot spot for almost no happiness.”

This is a reminder of more and more experts that social connections are a basic component of human beings and a basic aspect of physical health.

A recent study even identified socializing as one of six factors you can control, reducing the risk of dementia, stroke, and depression, which increases existing research, which suggests that this is a boon for longevity.

As psychotherapist Kathryn Smerling previously told her post, she is easily forgotten in the growing virtual world today, and she has turned on “social often” to clients.

Elsewhere in New York City talks, Waldinger notes that when it comes to happiness, our culture may not always lead us in the right direction.

“The achievement badges we all set for ourselves – money, awards, followers on social media – these achievement badges are quantifiable so they look to make us happy, but they don’t make us happy.”

“Culture can sell us the idea that if we do all the right things, we will always be happy,” he added. “That’s not true. No one is always happy.”

That is, next time you imagine a superhero – try calling mom.